Pfleger is one of five Orange County residents cleared by Brown Dec. 24. The governor announced 79 pardons statewide before Christmas.

Pfleger helped found the George T. Pfleger Foundation, which in 1998 established the Pfleger Institute of Environmental Research. The institute is devoted to marine research and education, according to its website.

"Tom is very thankful for Gov. Brown's decision and will continue his charity activities," Stokke said. "He is especially fond of children's charities and any organization which has focus on substance-abuse rehabilitation."

Ex-convicts can apply for a pardon after 10 years of being on parole or probation, if they have demonstrated exemplary behavior following their conviction.

The California Board of Parole Hearings and a majority of the justices of the California Supreme Court recommended Pfleger for the pardon.

Facebook comments are not regularly monitored by Daily Pilot staff. If you believe a comment violates any of the below rules, please email Editor John Canalis at john.canalis@latimes.com and Web Editor Ann Haley at ann.haley@latimes.com. Staff will review and remove offending comments during working hours, 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday.

The Daily Pilot reserves the right to remove, block or refuse any comment for any reason. When posting to DailyPilot.com, you agree to not provide comments that:

* are defamatory, threatening, disparaging, grossly inflammatory, false, misleading, fraudulent, inaccurate, unfair, contains gross exaggeration or unsubstantiated claims, violate the privacy rights of any third party, are unreasonably harmful or offensive to any individual or community.

* discriminate on the grounds of race, religion, national origin, gender, age, marital status, sexual orientation or disability, or refer to such matters in any manner prohibited by law.

* "flame" any individual or entity (e.g., sends repeated messages related to another user and/or make derogatory or offensive comments about another individual), or repeat prior posting of the same message under multiple threads or subjects.

* violate or encourage the violation of any municipal, state, federal or international law, rule, regulation or ordinance.

* advertise, promote or offer to trade any goods or services, except in areas specifically designated for such purpose.

*contain copyrighted or other proprietary material of any kind without the express permission of the owner of that material.

* violate any right of dailypilot.com or any third party.

* upload or transmit viruses or other harmful, disruptive or destructive files, material or code.